Downbeat amid the downpour

In the minutes following the historic vote in the Senate to pass the carbon price legislation, the sky really did fall in – just as
Tony Abbott
predicted it would.

The bucketing also managed to rain on the parade of the Greens senators, forcing them to find a new venue for their post-vote press conference.

As a backdrop, the sudden change in climatic conditions in Canberra could not have been more fitting. Inside the chamber, the contrast could not have been starker.

As the storm clouds gathered over Parliament, government benches were markedly sombre and downbeat as the vote approached and opposition ­senators wound up the rhetoric for the gallery.

Even when the final vote was taken after the last attempt at delay by the opposition, there were no scenes of jubilation.

Finance Minister
Penny Wong
– who failed twice to get her carbon pollution reduction scheme past the Senate – quickly left the chamber. Her successor in the climate change portfolio,
Greg Combet
, watched impassively from the public gallery.

Instead, it was left to the Greens senators and the public gallery stacked with their supporters to provide the celebratory note. After the vote, Greens leader
Bob Brown
and his ­deputy,
Christine Milne
, strode quickly across the chamber to shake the hand of the government leader in the Senate,
Chris Evans
. They were unable to catch Senator Wong.

All the while, opposition senators jeered and cat-called – just as they had in the hour leading up to the vote as they sought to delay the inevitable.

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“What about the trucking vote?" Liberal senator
Bill Heffernan
kept bellowing across the chamber. At least, that is what it sounded like. Amid all the noise, it was hard to hear if it was a slight variation of those words.

Perhaps the restraint shown on the government side was an attempt to avoid a repeat of the scenes of kisses and hugs on the government benches when the carbon price bills passed the House of Representatives last month.

“You could say we learnt our lesson from that," said one Labor senator. “We didn’t want to look like we were married to the Greens."